When did they change the balk rule?
 

This is more for amusement than anything else.

NCAA D3 nonconference doubleheader (two 7s). Top of 7th in game 1 with the home team trailing 6-4. They've made a slow comeback on Senior Day, where graduating seniors are being honored with their mothers, since it's also Mother's Day. Runners are on first and third with 1 out. Pitcher is throwing back to first base a few times to hold R1 on, for obvious reasons. He finally delivers the pitch, only to race right through the Set without stopping. At all. I call the balk, the pitch isn't hit, and I award bases. R3 consequently scores. I turn around and find the home team's head coach already at the plate yelling, "Why do you have to call a balk in every game you work?" I replied rhetorically, "Why does your pitcher have to commit a balk in every game?"

"You can't call a balk in a tight game like this! You can't call a balk in a situation like this," he tells me. I purposely look to the field where R2 is now on second and say to the head coach, "It's instinctive for me. Your pitcher sees it and I call it. I am not concerned about the position of the runners or the score of the game, but before I call a balk again, I'll be sure to check the score of the game or where the runners are, because I didn't know balks are called dependent on the game situation of runners' position."

"You're phucking...!" He never did finish that comment, which was irrelevant, because as soon as I heard the word "phucking," which followed "You're," I tossed him. He gets madder and asks why I ejected him. I tell him, to which he replies, "Oh yeah? Well, you're phucking horrible! You're phucking terrible!" as he's chest-to-chest with me now.

I literally had to prevent myself from laughing, because I kinda thought this was amusing (I don't get so worked up over such arguments and ejections). I've got to check Evans's manual or the J/R book to see where they changed the balk rule to be dependent on runners' positions or the game's score.

I can't say for sure but I think you can find that ruling right after it talks about the hands being part of the bat. ;) If you make it to the point where the "tie" goes to the runner you have gone to far. :D You might also want to check around the part where foul tips are dead balls.:p

I completely get the issue with the coach - if he wants situational calls, he should be a football or hockey coach. (I love hockey, but the officiating in the NHL makes me crazy - either don't call anything at all, or call it the same way the entire game!)

Anyway, I have a question from the game managment side of the house. I have about 60 posts to your 1,200+, and the only college guys I umpire for would be some summer wood-bat and NABA (where they're hidden among other players) games, but ... if someone like me were to post a similar story, wouldn't the ol.., er, experienced umpires here just rip me for baiting the head coach?

Certainly, the coach proved his rat-hood by going down the Situational Cul-de-sac, but your initial response, followed with the talk about checking the runners next time, walked him right into the EJ.

Or is this some college thing, where we can do that at that level? Again, I'm not a college umpire, so maybe 'the game' is played a little differently there.

HokieUmp,

No, UMP25's baiting the coach into an ejection was completely unprofessional - even at the college level.

Also violates the NCAA code of ethics for umpires.

JM

Nahhh, he baited him a lil bit.

it's hard to restrain sometimes...but it's not a good idea to bait, then eject.

I have no reservations about what I said to him. Yes, I'm a veteran umpire, and yes, occasionally I may use some sarcasm in my responses to head coaches in order to get my point across.

obviously it's your choice to choose that style.

If you say the stuff you said to him, then you baited him into it, and it's not professional. Everyone has a job to do, and when a coach overdoes his, it's bad for the game. The same is true when one of us overdoes our job. It's not an acceptable practice. It was way too much talking even if it was appropriate. But it was inappropriate.

I have a few things in my game that I am proud of, and my zero coach ejections is one of them. All of my ejections are of players and they were for malicious contact (6), or unsportsmanlike conduct (2). It's that way, because nothing I say or do while emotions are running high makes the situation get worse. I let the blood cool, and then we have a conversation, and I win and the coach goes away and the game goes on. I am as sarcastic or as blunt as most, but not when I assume the role of umpire. When I assume that role, for the good of the game, I compromise my personality in favor of a game that features the players, and not the coaches or the umpires.

I am working a college conference tournament this past weekend in Green Bay, WI, and in middle of the 9th inning (storm clouds rolling in) get really dark and my first base umpire comes in and asked if I can have the lights turned on he is having a hard time seeing, usually do this at the start of an inning but we have to be able to see the ball. I have the home team (down by 3 runs at this time) turn the lights on. The visiting coach goes crazy yelling at me, "In the middle of an inning?" I replied "Coach I asked them to turn them on...you also want to be able to see fly balls and pop ups...don't you?" They calm down a bit. Bottom of 9th...first batter grounds out...new pitcher and new third baseman. First pitch the batter hits a foul popup behind third about a mile high and the SS runs about 25 yards to make the catch...maybe he doesn't see it without the lights on. Next batter hit another pop up on the infield a mile high and the SS catches it and they win the conference tournament. Coaches will argue just about anything!

If we let them. Our game management skills come into play here. Which in my opinion is just another piece of what separates a great umpire from just an ump.

Indeed it was, and I've never had problems with it. I average about 5 ejections per year out of some 150+ games. Last year I had 3 for the whole year, spring college and summer college combined. This year I had 3 for my spring. None of them were my fault.

A head coach who bolts out of the dugout to scream at me about a balk call is going to get ejected regardless of whether I ask him if I'm supposed to check the runners' positions before I call a balk.

I love the sanctimony of a few folks here. No one's perfect, of course, but I've never had a problem where game management has been concerned.

He won't get any situational favortism in my games! Neither did Jake Locker from a certain Pac-10 crew this past year. :)

Nice if you can get it but not all of us are that fortunate. I haven't ejected many coaches/managers but the ones I have all deserved it. I definitely didn't bait any of them into acting like idiots on the field.

Oftentimes that's not necessary, for they can act like that quite easily. ;)

Agreed. Some coaches just need runnin', and baiting them a little is a long-standing tradition and art form that the modern umpire eschews in favor of being "niiiiiiice." Screw that.